What is your weather like ... today

[capewind]

CE, I know if things like your post are not spelled out (and you DID spell it out), on the surface, it can almost come across as a bit morbid (yours didnt), and I happen to agree with you. Mother Nature is all her fury is truly beautiful. We get a lot of storms that the forecasters make sound so awful, but as MrsClem wrote, you learn to adapt. A hurricane of any size is no joke, and I am sure those in the south have many storm stories, but given our normal nor'easters, and winter storms, the threat of a cat 1 storm isnt alarming HERE in our immediate area. We DID get caught with our pants down with Hurricane Bob, as frankly, we get warned so often of a nasty storm, and they dont happen... Here's a twisted news article about when Bob hit us. The jouralist tends to avoid the typical drama and gives things his own spin. http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2011/08/19/20-years-ago-today-hurricane-bob?blog=233 I get frustrated with the normal news reports as they tend to lack the human nature side of things. I would much rather hear first hand accounts than what is printed in the news. With Bob, the strongest memories I have are not during the storm, but the LINES to get ice and gas AFTER... A lot of writeups say we were just a few days without power. Ya, right. We were LUCKY at only going 8 days, because we were on the same main lines as the hospital. Some areas went without for a month. We fueled the cars up before the storm, but a week later when you are getting low, it then presents an issue. These are the things I wish more newspapers would cover. Yes, the loss of life and property is awful but folks surviving need to learn how to adapt to whatever is thrown at them too in the wake. That was one of the things that stood out to me about the devestation Katrina caused. All these years later, and still, not much has been said about the aftermath:-(

 

[mrsclem]

So true Capewind. We are lucky to have most of the lines in our area underground but we do still lose power. Our power company does a great job of getting things back up and running quickly. Biggest outage we have had was 3 days. If you are closer to DC all bets are off. Power outages of 20 days or more are common. I couldn't understand why people in our neighborhood parked their cars along the road last year before the storm. Storm hits, trees along the long driveway come down and people are trapped! Hubby will be packing clothes, meds & food for when he goes out tomorrow as they will probably have to stay.

 

[capewind]

We have two small gens (the bigger one I think is 5000 watt or something like that - hubby's department). Over kill for the area, the whole house is wired, but havent had the extra to spend of the unit we set up for... Our stove top is gas, and have a grill, so not worried about cooking... Always keep about 10 - 2 liter soda bottles filled with water in the freezer, but will add a few more today. (Both for drinking as well as keeping the freezer cold.) Wont worry about the fridge. (Dont have the standard fridge with built in freezer, have 2 seperate units.) Hubby will just rotate power to suit the need. Of course that will include a TV and DVD player;-) Unless the cell phone towers go down, we'll even have internet;-)

I do need to head to the store in a bit tho. Basically just stocking up on the big boxes of (gross) frozen premade hamburger patties, hotdogs and snacks (need more chips and cracker type items)... everything else food wise for a storm we always have on hand... and fill the trucks all with fuel (that is going to hurt - about 300 gallons of fuel).

Other than some power outages, wind damages, and beach erosions, I dont think our immediate area will be too bad, although we have been updated to state of emergency status.

 

[brandonsdad02]

CE, If you flip your main breaker at the top of you electric panel off, you don't back feed electrict to the power lines if your power goes out. You then can hook up your generator to your electric panel. It would be easy to do but I also was a electrician for 6 years. You wire up a 220 volt plug in, put in a weather proof box and put on outside of house. Get a heavy duty rubber cord, put the right twist lok plug in to match your generator and your plug in and your done.

 

[addy1]

We don't lose power out here, in the 3 years we have been here. Little blips off and on.

 

[CountryEscape]

Thanks for Generator 101, Ryan. But, I have a couple more questions. Once I get the plug in outside, can hook up generator to that, then can I turn on the breakers that are needed, ie fridge, living room (aquariums, DVR, tv) or do I still need to run some type of extension cords? This sounds much easier to do it this way, and worth the investment of getting it done.
The longest I have been out of power here since I moved 3 years ago was in the ice storm in 2010. I was out for 8 hours, almost all during the night. Power came back on around 5 a.m., so house was warm by time I had to get up! Sweet!!! But, I'm on the end of a power line, just one house past me on same line, and both houses on either side of my property have the propane back up generators. They are in no hurry to get power back, but I will be. In the ice storm last year, some houses were out for a week or more. If that had been me, I fear lots of things would have been destroyed or killed. I want to be more prepared this year, now before the storm is looming, too. Especially since I will be gone for 10 days in January, prime bad weather time.

 

[Big Lou]

Yes even massive storms can provide humor, albeit "dark humor".

September 12, 1979 Hurricane Frederic struck far south coastal Alabama. At that time I was stoned in California and my bride to be was at her home in Louisiana. Our upcoming marriage was scheduled to take place in SW Louisiana on October 27. We planned to spend our honeymoon at a beautiful private resort on Daulpin Island, AL. The island was connected to the mainland by a then small two lane highway. This island is one of many barrier Gulf Cost islands. Well, during last minute preparations I attempted to confirm our week long stay at the resort. Call after call went unanswered. Finally I contacted my immediate family in Mobile (the entire family made the seven hour trip to see little brother marry his beautiful Cajun bride). I almost hit the floor when my sister informed me that my phone calls to the resort went unanswered because the resort and much of the island including the causeway (road to the mainland) were completely gone. Sweep out to sea during Fredric! It took over a decade to rebuild that beautiful island. Our wedding and replanned Honeymoon went thankfully on without a hitch. Below is a factual report about Hurricane Federic.

"Hurricane Frederic was the sixth tropical cyclone, third hurricane and second major hurricane of the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season. Frederic was the costliest hurricane to ever hit the U.S. Gulf Coast at that particular time. Starting with heavy rains and moderate winds over the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico, Frederic weakened to tropical-storm force across Cuba, regaining hurricane force in the Gulf of Mexico well before landfall in Alabama on the night of September 12, 1979, at Dauphin Island. By that time it had 125 mph (201 km/h) winds and storm surge of 8–12 ft (2-4.7 m). Frederic crossed the state line, slowing to a tropical storm near Meridian, Mississippi.
Damage estimates vary from $6–9 billion (2008 USD), with variations due to inadequate reporting of private insurance claims as well as lack of hard data on uninsured damage. FEMA, which had been established only three months before Frederic hit, was the focal point for nearly $250 million in federal aid for recovery, $188 million of which went to Alabama (1979 USD)."

 

[brandonsdad02]

No cords, just flip on what you need and enjoy. With that set up you are powering your electric panel and using your existing home wires as your extension cords. Once power is back on, unhook your generator first before turning your main breaker back on.

 

[sissy]

sunny here but windy,but then it is always windy here and it is close to 60 degrees and just talked to friends near Atlantic City Nj and they are getting wind and rain .They live near the Black Horse Turnipike and that floods fast so they are heade farther inland .My son lives near Edison NJ they are getting rain that comes and goes

 

[j.w]

This happened here in our state in 1940 in a windstorm. Wasn't around then but they still talk about the day "Galloping Gertie" (The Tacoma Narrows Bridge) collapsed into the waters below due to a physical phenomenon known as aeroelastic flutter caused by a 42 mph (68 km/h) wind.The bridge collapse had lasting effects on science and engineering. In many undergraduate physics texts the event is presented as an example of elementary forced resonance with the wind providing an external periodic frequency that matched the natural structural frequency (even though the real cause of the bridge's failure was aeroelastic flutter. A contributing factor was its solid sides, not allowing wind to pass through the bridge's deck. Thus its design allowed the bridge to catch the wind and sway, which ultimately took it down.Its failure also boosted research in the field of bridge aerodynamics/aeroelastics, fields which have influenced the designs of all the world's great long-span bridges built since 1940.
No human life was lost in the collapse of the bridge. However, a small dog perished after it was abandoned in a car on the bridge by its owner, Leonard Coatsworth, and by another man, both of whom were bitten by the terrified dog when they attempted to remove it. The collapse of the bridge was recorded on 16 mm film by Barney Elliott, owner of a local camera shop, and shows Leonard Coatsworth leaving the bridge after exiting his car. In 1998, The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". This footage is still shown to engineering, architecture, and physics students as a cautionary tale.
Dismantling of the towers and side spans—which survived the collapse of the main span but were damaged beyond repair—began shortly after the collapse and continued into May 1943. The United States' participation in World War II as well as engineering and finance issues delayed plans to replace the bridge.

Watch the amazing "Gallopin' Gertie" November 7, 1940 film clip below.
1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge
Slender, elegant and graceful, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge stretched like a steel ribbon across Puget Sound in 1940. The third longest suspension span in the world opened on July 1st. Only four months later, the great span's short life ended in disaster. "Galloping Gertie," collapsed in a windstorm on November 7,1940.

The bridge became famous as "the most dramatic failure in bridge engineering history." Now, it's also "one of the world's largest man-made reefs." The sunken remains of Galloping Gertie were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 to protect her from salvager's.

A dramatic tale of failure and success
The story of the failure of the 1940 Narrows Bridge and the success of the Current Narrows Bridge is a great American saga. When Galloping Gertie splashed into Puget Sound, it created ripple effects across the nation and around the world. The event changed forever how engineers design suspension bridges. Gertie's failure led to the safer suspension spans we use today.

 

[sissy]

I saw that on the weather channel when they did a story on the history of bridges and showed what weather can do .

 

[sissy]

could you imagine seeing that and being there.Thing is how safe are the bridges today as they are old and crumbling .

 

[capewind]

These pics are really bad, scanner died,, and took pics of pics awhile ago when chatting with a friend about Bob. Hubby had to run a saw just to get us off of our road... these are pics taken within a mile of the house... need to find the rest of the pics...

 

[Big Lou]

j.w.
An amazing event. I've read quite a bit about the engineering faults resulting in the bridges collapse and the subsequent lessons learned. The film seeming could have come from a sci-fi movie.

 

[addy1]

We are READY! clothes washed, dishes washed...........................AND BROWNIES made.............will survive any storm now!